


promise

by SallyK



Category: Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry
Genre: (so spoilers from eps 8 and 7), Fluff, M/M, set during episode eight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-08 05:10:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16423019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SallyK/pseuds/SallyK
Summary: A celebration was in call.Lion didn't know if he should feel happy.





	promise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SuzumeMizuno](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuzumeMizuno/gifts).



> Hi, everyone!
> 
> I saw a really cute Willion fanart and got inspired to write something about them. I find their relationship very interesting!  
> As always, English is not my first language but I tried my best. Big thanks to **Ang** for being my beta this time.
> 
> I hope you like it~~!

The hall was barely lit; the dimmed light from the lamps too weak to cast the shadows away. If it weren’t for the lively chatter and the clatter of the dishes that crept through the parlor’s closed doors, one could think everybody in the house was already sleeping.

But not a single soul in Rokkenjima could be possibly resting that night. A celebration was in call.

Lion didn’t know if he should be happy or not.

He wasn’t nervous about navigating his way through a social gathering this important. He was more than prepared to deal with protocol and people. He didn’t wear the silver ring of the Ushiromiyas as a mere accessory, after all. It was on his finger because he had been raised and educated to be the perfect successor. A normal reunion, a normal  _ family  _ reunion, wouldn’t pose a challenge.

This was as far from being a normal reunion as the Earth from the stars.

They were at the main mansion in Rokkenjima, where everything should feel familiar and  _ safe.  _ But Lion could still feel the claws and teeth ghosting over his skin, he could still hear Bernkastel’s voice commanding her cats to chase them, to  _ tear  _ them apart. He couldn’t stop himself from touching his side from time to time, expecting to find there the dampness of Will’s blood. The only dampness was from his own sweaty hands, though.

“What’s wrong?” Will’s calm voice brought him back to reality.

Lion almost laughed.

_ What’s wrong. _

What wasn’t wrong.

What wasn’t wrong after everything he had seen, everything he had gone through. After knowing there was no universe in which he would have survived beyond those days in early October. After knowing that his other selves would have ended up murdering their own family in other realities. After feeling his skin and flesh being bitten off his bones...

But Will knew all of that.

Will knew more about him than anyone, after all, apart from those wicked and heartless witches.

"They are going to be there, aren't they? The other versions of me."

_ Beatrice _ .

"Every participant of this game should be there, yes." His lips were pressed together, almost a hard line chiseled on his face.

Will didn’t look like he relished the prospect of attending the party either, although his motives were probably different. 

In any case, it wasn’t as if they had a choice, and the celebration was better than the alternative. Lion tried not to shiver when he saw a cat-like shadow out of the corner of his eye.

Instinctively, he reached for Will’s arm. He could feel it, strong and  _ whole,  _ under the sleeve. Lion would have never imagined he would end up feeling so happy, so relieved, just by touching an arm.

But he would have never imagined his family would end up being a plaything for bored witches either.

“I’m okay,” Will reassured him, placing a hand over his.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I chose to go back for you. It’s not your fault.”

It was Bernkastel’s fault.

She wasn’t apologizing. Their attendance to the party wasn’t even her doing, but Lambdadelta’s, and probably the Witch of Certainty hadn’t even snatched them from Lion’s catbox because she felt bad for them. Witches probably couldn’t feel bad for anyone, not even for themselves. And, in any case, this whole celebration wasn’t for them; it was just an act for the final Game Master. They were there just as a part of an epilogue, a coda of a story that wasn't meant for them in the first place. Battler hadn’t even been there when Lion and Will had met, after all. 

Lion wondered what would happen next, once the curtains came down and the play finally ended. Would he return to his original world, Kyrie pointing at him with a gun, her face so twisted it was almost unrecognizable? Would he be gnawed on by Bernkastel’s vicious demonic cats for all eternity? Was he already  _ dead _ ?

"Lion."

Lion gritted his teeth together, angry at himself for behaving like this. It was beyond ridiculous, standing in front of the parlor’s closed doors for… how long? Five minutes? Ten?, when the handles were within arm’s reach. Will could have easily opened the doors at any time, but Lion was aware that he was waiting for him.

He tried to let go of Will’s arm, but Will caught his hand gently. 

"I'll find you a happy fragment, Lion. I won't let her win."

It was barely a whisper, a promise meant to be heard by Lion. Not by the witches, not by the rest of the Ushiromiya family. Not by his other selves. 

Just by him.

Will’s lips brushed faintly over Lion’s knuckles, a touch so delicate it would feel wrong to call it a kiss. It deserved a totally different term, a new expression which could also put into words the feeling that churned inside Lion’s stomach, like a caged animal rattling the iron bars, threatening to get loose.

He didn't know how to react, whether to pinch Will’s butt with his free hand or to kiss him, so he did both.

Will’s mouth was warm and welcoming as he returned the kiss, so soft it was almost unbelievable how any rude words could had possibly come out from there and, for a brief, fleeting moment, Lion forgot about the banquet, Beatrice, Bernkastel.

They shared a breath when they parted, an echo of what they had just done, perhaps a hope of what they could do in the future.

"Are you ready?” 

Their hands were still together, and it felt so natural, so  _ right _ that Lion's heart almost skipped a beat.

Lion took a deep breath, two, trying to regain his composure and facing again the closed doors. He would worry later about claws, catboxes and cursed fates. He would worry later about a promise and the kiss that had followed. He would worry later about  _ Lion.  _

Now, he was the future family head of the Ushiromiyas, and he had a party to attend to.


End file.
